{"id":3614,"date":"2019-12-12T12:02:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T06:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/?p=3614"},"modified":"2019-12-21T12:08:21","modified_gmt":"2019-12-21T06:38:21","slug":"sales-in-early-days-founder-is-the-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/sales-in-early-days-founder-is-the-key\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales in Early days: Founder is the key"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is no question that in the pre product market fit days the Founder has to do the selling, however the problem is much more complex than we give credit for. I found this series of articles by Martin Casado<\/a>, General Partner at A16Z, which is absolute gold. Do you remember prepping for questions like \u201cwhy is your solution better than everyone else?\u201d or building the competitive quadrant pitch decks? Martin writes – \u201cfounders fill it in with a comparative set that\u2019s often populated with so-called competitors that aren\u2019t likely to be included in an actual sales bake-off ….so what you\u2019re really positioning against is the status quo.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So what does early market sales process look like? \u201c(1) qualifying customers and deals ; (2) finding budget – in early markets there may not be an existing budget; (3)figuring who the key decision makers are; (4) navigating procurement and pricing” and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to recognize the complexity of selling in the pre product market fit days. I highly recommend that this weekend you go through the whole set (links below) and wrap your head around the ideas as you get ready for 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a day to loose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where I learnt this #346 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Sales Isn\u2019t Just Selling: Advice for Founders in Early Markets <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/a16z.com\/2018\/10\/19\/when-sales-isnt-just-selling-advice-for-founders-in-early-markets<\/a>\/ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNeed More Time\u201d or Lack of Product-Market Fit? Guideposts for Tech Founders Going to Market When No Market Exists <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/a16z.com\/2018\/01\/24\/mixed-signals-going-to-market-pre-chasm<\/a>\/ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

a16z Podcast: Creating a Category, from Pricing to Positioning <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/a16z.com\/2018\/02\/24\/category-creation-startups<\/a>\/ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going to Market When No Market Exists <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/a16z.com\/2017\/06\/09\/go-to-market-pre-chasm-market-martin-casado\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no question that in the pre product market fit days the Founder has to do the selling, however the problem is much more complex than we give credit for. I found this series of articles by Martin Casado, General Partner at A16Z, which is absolute gold. Do you remember prepping for questions like […]<\/p>\n<\/p>

Continue Reading<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ub_ctt_via":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,74],"tags":[70,77,81,172],"class_list":["post-3614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-i-learnt-today","category-sales","tag-alwayslearning","tag-sales","tag-startups","tag-founders"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Subhanjan Sarkar","author_link":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/author\/subhanjan\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paX7jg-Wi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}